Significant Events That Led The United States Into World War I

There were many significant events that lead the United States into World War I. The first was the sinking of the Lusitania ship on May 7th, 1915. American Government had told Germany to stop unrestricted warfare and this became known as Germany’s first warning from America. Then President Woodrow Wilson issued a second warning by saying he would cut diplomatic relations with Germany unless the German Government stopped attacking all passenger ships and allowed the people on board of enemy ships to leave their ships before attacking, after Germany had sank an unarmed French boat named the Sussex. On May 4, 1916, the German Government accepted these terms and became known as the “Sussex pledge.” This event would become significant because it would lead to the second event, the German Government publicly announcing that they would resume unrestricted submarine attacks.

The reasoning behind this decision was that the German Navy had convinced the military that continuing the use of unrestricted submarine warfare could

On January 19, 1917, British intelligence intercepted a telegram sent by Arthur Zimmermann, a German Foreign Minister, to Mexico City. The “Zimmermann Telegram” promised Mexico that Germany would help Mexico get back the territory it had lost to the United States during the Mexican-American War if Mexico would become Allie to Germany. Originally the British were not going to release the telegram to the U.S. but after Germany’s continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare in February, Great Britain decided to use the telegram to help sway U.S. officials and U.S. public opinion to join the war, this is why this event was significant to the U.S. joining the war. But Wilson waited until March 20 before assembling a Cabinet meeting to discuss the telegram, almost a month after he had first seen the